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HTTPS, TLS and the padlock

How the web actually works

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HTTPS is HTTP with the contents sealed

Plain HTTP sends everything readable. Anyone between the visitor and your server, a coffee shop router, an internet provider, can read and change it.

HTTPS wraps that same conversation in encryption. TLS is the name of the wrapping. People still say SSL, which is the older, retired version of the same idea.

HTTPS is the same web, in an envelope.